Tyler Hamilton‘s book, “The Secret Race” won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year prize for 2012, becoming the third cycling book to win the prestigious British prize.
The announcement was made this afternoon at Waterstones Piccadilly by BBC sports journalist John Inverdale.
Inverdale declared “Candidates of the prize are the strongest since his involvement with the prize”, but said that “ultimately The Secret Race had to win, because it has fundamentally change the sport that it’s writing about.”
Tyler Hamilton said in his acceptance speech, “it is the truth, and the truth needed to be told.”
Co-author of the book, said that “We’re all here because we love heroes, and we love stories about heroes” but that, though heroes are those elevated above the rest, “Tyler’s story shows how important the collective is.”
“The Secret Race” is the third cycling book to win the William Hill Sports Book of the Year prize. Sports journalist and former professional cyclist Paul Kimmage‘s book “Rough Ride” won in 1990, and the Irishman became one of the biggest anti-doping campaigners in the sport. And the other was, ironically, Lance Armstrong‘s “It’s Not About the Bike”, won in 2000, written with columnist Sally Jenkins.
Tyler Hamilton was a teammate of banned cyclist Lance Armstrong during the 1999, 2000 and 2001 Tour de France where Armstrong won the Yellow jersey.
Sources
- “The Secret Race wins William Hill Sports Book of the Year for 2012” on The Guardian website
- William Hill Sports Book of the Year on Wikipedia
- “Sports Book of the Year” on the William Hill website
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